


your worth

by graveltotempo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Crack and Angst, Gen, Lance (Voltron) Angst, i love my son lance, pidge is ma fave tbh, right after hance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 09:27:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11033379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graveltotempo/pseuds/graveltotempo
Summary: The paladins have to deal with a de-aged lance.





	your worth

**Author's Note:**

> exactly what the title says tf.  
> I'm on tumblr, I'm bisexualqueenreyna

“What do you mean you can’t find Lance anywhere?” Almost shouted Hunk, looking between Allura and Coran like he was expecting Lance to jump out from behind them. It didn’t happen.

Allura held up her arms. “Me and Pidge have been trying, but it’s like something is blocking off the Blue Lion’s signal and that Lance is not wearing his suit. The signal connects to the suit, but there is no response.”

Keith crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, can’t you use the signal to track the uniform down or something?”

Pidge shook her head. “It seems like I can’t access at all, I’ve been trying. And the lion…” She paused and glanced at Allura and Coran. “The lion is like actively trying to stop us from finding it.”

The reaction was immediate. 

“Why on Earth would it do that?” 

“Maybe the Galra have him and Lance is trying to protect us?” 

“Can the lion even do that? Isn’t that like, impossible?” 

“It is possible.” Everyone turned to look at Allura, who was frowning at herself. She looked up at the rest of the paladins. “In case of extreme danger, the Lion is able of cutting itself off from everyone and everything. But this requires years and years of trust between the Lion and its paladin, and the lion must me absolutely convinced that the paladin might be in danger with anyone else.”

Shiro gave her a long look. “Are you saying that the Blue Lion thinks that Lance is in danger with _us_? That we are a _danger_ for _Lance_?”

Coran hummed. “Not necessarily a danger. It could also simply mean that the Lion doesn’t trust us.”

Hunk seemed at loss for words. “Why wouldn’t the Blue Lion just contact the rest of the lions? We are Voltron!” he stressed, looking at the rest of the paladins. 

Pidge shrugged. “According to Allura it’s almost impossible that Lance and his lion have already formed such a strong relationship with each other-”

“Not impossible.” Coran said, twirling his moustache in thought. “I’ve seen Lance spending more time than anyone else on this ship with his lion. Sometimes I even see him with Blue in the middle of the night.” He explained.

The yellow paladin chewed his bottom lip before shaking his head. “It doesn’t matter! We have to find Lance, there must be something we haven’t done yet that could help us.”

“No need. He’s coming.” Said Keith, not bothering to look at the rest of the team.

The other boy snapped. “We all know you’re a super emo and that you don’t give a shit about Lance or feelings, but Lance is a part of us! So please do shut you quiznack mouth and-”

“What I mean,” said Keith, looking at the angry Hunk with a confused stare, “is that the Blue Lion is coming.” He said, pointing straight ahead of the ship. True to his words, the Blue Lion was approaching the castle ship really quickly, but still was not on the castle’s radar.

Allura glanced at the others. “Guess there is only one way to find out what happened.” She decided. Then they ran off to the hangar.

+

The blue lion was already there when they made it to the hangar. But instead of opening his jaws and letting Lance out, the huge robot roared the moment he saw the rest of the team, effectively stopping them in their tracks.

“That did not seem friendly. Am I the only one who thinks that did not seem friendly?” asked Hunk, staring worriedly at the creature. No one said anything, but Keith had a hand on his blade, ready to use if necessary.

Allura frowned. “The lion… he’s telling everyone to _back off_.” She said, surprised. 

The black paladin frowned. “What? Why …? And how do you know… actually, this is not the time.” He turned to face the Blue Lion, who was almost scowling at them, if robot lions could scowl, that’s it. “We are paladins of Voltron! We are here to help-”

He interrupted himself, as a hologram came out of the Lion. It slowly formed itself into a hand, before flipping them all off. The princess blistered at that. “How dare you!” she screeched, getting ready to attack the robot, like it wasn’t 10 times her height and could sprout lasers from its jaw and eyes.

The Lion growled menacingly, getting ready to jump, but Coran stopped the princess before she could get too close. “You are no use for us if you get destroyed by Lance’s lion.” He turned to the Lion. “What happened to Lance? Is he inside? Is he okay?”

The Lion huffed, locking eyes with Coran for a moment. Then he rumbled in its chest. Allura frowned. “The lion only wants Coran to go inside.” She explained them all.

“Is it safe? He seemed pretty hostile up until now.” Mused Pidge, looking at the animal from the corner of her eyes.

The red haired man shook his head. “It’s the only way to find out what happened to Lance.” He told them, and started moving towards the animal.

The huge lion immediately opened his jaws when he saw Coran approaching. Theredhead man climbed on top and disappeared inside the robot, while the paladins of Voltron stayed exactly where they were, waiting for the man to say something. Or Lance to appear. Whichever happened first. 

They didn't have to wait long. 

“Oh, Holy quiznack! Is this you Lance?” 

Allura and the rest of the team were waiting for Coran to say something else, but the man seemed to be speechless. After what seemed like years he finally came out of the lion, now rending the paladins speechless. Because what he was holding in his arms…. Was a baby.

Pidge was the first to ask what everyone was thinking. “ What on Earth is that?”. 

Allura then gasped, blinking at the baby in Coran’s hands. “According to the Lion… that’s Lance.” The baby, who was somewhere around 2 and three years old, looked up at the name. And yes, the dark skin, dark eyes… everything reminded them of the Blue Paladin, except that he was, you know, shrunk. When he saw everyone looking at him, Lance let out a tiny squeal and then his face in the older man’s chest.

Coran cooed, much to everyone else’s dismay. Then he blushed, and cleared his throat, giving everyone a hard look. “It looks like we’ve got a problem.”

***

Lance was sitting on one of the desks in the observation room, a thumb in his mouth s he swung his legs up and down, humming to himself. He hadn’t really said anything to anyone since arriving, and Allura and the others didn’t quite know what to do with him.

How much did he remember? Did the Garla do this? Did someone else? And why?

While Coran prepared the machinery to see if there was anything else wrong with him, the rest of the team was staring at Lance from a corner of the room, talking to each other in hushed tones.

"How on Earth did that happen?" wondered Pidge, watching the small Lance playing around on the table. 

Keith shrugged. " I don't know, but it creeps me the fuck out." He turned to Allura." Did we get anything out of the blue lion?" 

The girl shook her head. "Nothing other than the fact that it knows a surprising amount of curse words." 

"Do we even know that he's not dangerous? I mean, he could be spying on us. Which explains why the Blue Lion was so mad, maybe?" 

Hunk shook his head. "The garla are bad and ugly and evil. Look at baby Lance! He's adorable!" 

While they were arguing witch each other, Coran was finishing up with what he needed for the machinery. He held uptwo small sticky things, like the one's they used in ECG scans as he smiled at him. "Right Lance. This is not going to hurt but we're going to make a few tests to make sure we know what happened to you. Is that alright?" 

The little boy scrunched his nose, then pointed directly at Shiro "Space Dad." he said. 

Shiro stared at him, bewildered for a moment, before pointing at himself. "What did you just call me?" 

Lance smiled and clapped. "Space Dad! I want space dad!" he repeated, looking very proud of himself.

The black paladin turned to Keith and the other. “Did he just say _space dad_?”

Before anyone could reply, Lance sniffed loudly. “Space… dad?” he asked, his lower lip trembling.

“Just go, before he starts crying!” almost shouted Pidge, pushing the older boy to where Lance was sitting.

The toddler smiled, showing two small dimples and reached out to hold Shiro’s hand. The paladin’s eye twitched, but he forced himself to smile, and squeezed Lance’s hand right back.

Lance’s smile was so warm, that for a moment Shiro forgot how messed up the entire situation was. 

“Unca Coco make test.” Explained to him Lance. “But Lance not sca’d, Lance got space daddy and space daddy stong and beat bad people for Lance!”

Hunk cooed even louder from where he stood at a safe distance from them, while the rest just looked positively freaked. It was adorable, yes, but this was Lance. There was something so _so_ wrong about the entire situation.

Since Shiro did not seem inclined to make any conversation, Coran tried to distract the little boy. “If I’m Uncle Coco and Shiro is space daddy, who’s space mummy?” he asked him, starting the scans.

Lance pointed at Allura. “Space mommy is a pincess, and space daddy loooooves pincess much and they ma’ied.” Shiro let out something between a yelp and a dying pterodactyl sound, while Allura turned brittle red. Lance continued. “The Fish, and Hunkie Pie and Kith.”

“Are they all your brothers and sisters?” asked him Coran, trying not to laugh at everyone’s faces.

Lance shook his head. “No! Space mommy and space daddy are ma’ied, and Fish is baby. Kith is baby too. Unca Coco is unca.” He explained, looking exasperated by the older man. It was _hysterical_. 

Hunk pointed at himself. “What about me? Am I your favourite brother?”

Lance shook his head even more vehemently than before. “Hunkie Pie my hubband!” Hunk’s eye twitched. Lance smiled. “My hubband and I looove Hunkie Pie. But Hunkie Pie don love Lance no mo becse space.” He looked down at his legs, and let go of Shiro. “Space daddy and space mommy ony loveKith and Fish and Hunkie Pie. Lance is sad.”

The little boy sniffed, and everyone looked at him in sudden concern. “Only meow meow love Lance.” Lance looked up at Shiro, eyes filling with tears. “I want my mommy!” he cried out, as fat tears started rolling down his cheeks.

“Allura do something!” called Keith, while everyone else just stared at the wailing toddler. 

“Why me? Shiro is there!” she pointed out, taking two steps back.

“You are space mommy, right? Do the mommy thing and save our eardrums!” he pleaded.

The girl glared at him, before wincing when Lance started crying even louder. “There is no heteromativity in space!”

Then Shiro picked him up, and settle him down on his lap. “Ehi, ehi, it’s okay. There is no need to cry. Why are you crying Lance?” he asked him softly, soothingly caressing his hair. “Space- ahem, space _daddy_ is here. And he loves you very very much.” He kept talking sweet nonsense, but it worked, as Lance stopped crying and just sniffed a bit, holding tight on the older paladin.

Pidge elbowed Keith. “I think Allura’s ovaries just exploded.” she whispered.

Keith just stared back at her, trying to figure out how could ovaries explode without leaving trace or making any noise, and how did Pidge even figure it out.

* * *

“So? You found anything?” asked Shiro, once everyone was sat at the dining table with a plate of space goo- ahem, Coran’s amazing cuisine. 

Lance was staring at the food with a ddisgusted look from where he was sat between Pidge and Hunk and right across from Keith, while Coran, Shiro and Allura were speaking.

The tech shook his head. “There is nothing physically wrong with him. No malfunction, no signs of garla teach, nothing. He’s just plain old Lance, except-”

“He’s smaller.” Concluded Allura with a sigh. She turned around to say something, just to catch Lance flip an entire spoonful straight at Keith’s face. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, LANCE!?”

The boy startled, before glaring at her. “Kith is mean and this is nasty!” he shouted back. “I don’t wike this!”

“Well, there is NOTHING ELSE, SO MAYBE EAT IT?” Fired back the princess.

“Calm down maybe?” muttered Shiro, but Lance was louder. “I HATE YOU!”

“I AM YOUR MOTHER, SO YOU LISTEN TO ME YOU LITTLE QUIZNACK!”

“Language!” called Shiro, helplessy.

Lance scrunched up his face and then threw the plate straight at Allura’s face. “NO!” he screamed back, blowing a raspberry and running out of the room.

Pidge was holding her stomach as she laughed on the floor, while Keith was glaring at where Lance had disappeared. “Can we kill it yet?”

“No, Keith! Lance is our friend, and your new baby brother and- holy shit, we just let a 3 years old baby run around the castle by _himself_.”

Everyone looked at each other for one second, before they started running towards where Lance had disappeared.

“Lance? Lance!”

“Lance, come back! We’re going to get you something better to eat!”

“Lance? I forgive you for insulting my food, come back!”

“Come out, come out you little sh- I was going to say adorable tiny baby, stop looking at me, Shiro.”

“Lance Charles McClain, I swear if you don’t show your face right now… I am going to cry!”

“Stop, everyone.” Said Shiro, looking at them. “Let’s think it rationally. If you were Lance, and were trying to hide from everyone else, where would you go?”

“The Swimming pool!” called Pidge and Hunk at the same time, high fiving each other.

The girl smiled at their surprised expression. “Me, Hunk and Lance are the Garrison trio. Do not forget that.” Her smile wavered for a moment. “Although it seems like _I_ ’ve forgotten it, lately.”

Hunk squeezed her shoulder, before everyone quickly made their way towards the swimming pool.

They found Lance at the edge of the pool, his clothes drenched and crying near the pool. When he saw them, he ran to Allura and jumped in her arms. “I am sowry!” he cried, as the woman held him in her arms.

Allura gave Keith and Shiro a look. _Why and how is he so adorable?_ She mouthed, patting him in the head. “It’s all right. Now we’re going to get you in a shower while me and Hunk make you something to eat. But no more messing around. Understood, Lance?”

He grinned at her. “Yes mam!”

* * *

“MORE BUBBLES!” ordered Lance, playing with in the bath while Keith tried and failed to wash his hair.

The red paladin was getting more frustrated the more Lance refused to stay still. “That’s enough bubbles. You could get hurt if there are too many bubbles.”

Lance glared. “No! MORE bubbles!”

“Did you even hear that story about a baby called Kance? Well there was this baby called Kance that always made his brother Leith ran a bath for him, and always complained about wanting more bubbles. So Leith got very mad and put all the fucking bubbles in Kance’s bath. Kance fell in the bath and died. The end. You don’t want to end up like Kance now, do you?”

Lance stared at Keith for a couple of seconds. Then… “SPACE DAD! SPACE MOM! KITH HURT ME!”

“WHAT?!” The red paladin looked at him in horror. “I DID NOT SUCH THINGS, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM!” 

Shiro, who had appeared out of thin air the moment Lance had started screaming frowned at them. “What’s going on?”

Lance pointed at Keith. “He sad a bad word! And then he sad he goin to killll me!”

Shiro glared at Keith. “Keith! Come on dude!”

“He keeps asking about the fucking bubbles!” 

“Language!”

Lance held up his hands and let Shiro take him out of the bath, sticking out his tongue at the red paladin the moment his back was turned. In return, Keith flipped him off, but _of course_ Shiro turned around in time to see that. “Keith, instead of trying your best to annoy Lance, how about you go help Pidge or something.”

Keith could only stare after him in betrayal, while Lance smirked and held tighter on Shiro.

* * *

When Shiro finally appeared in the main hall, the rest of the Voltron team was already assembled there. Hunk was sitting on one of the bigger chairs with Pidge, sharing a plate of what _looked_ like popcorn, while Keith was leaning on the wall, arms crossed around his chest.

Allura and Coran to decipher something on the main screen, but stopped when the black paladin entered the room. Shiro sighed. “He seems all right. He fell asleep after making me sing _soft kitty_ , and he seemed just fine, but… Have you guys found anything that might help us turn him back?” 

The princess blushed for a moment when Shiro looked up at her, then shrugged. “Blue still refuses to say anything that isn’t extremely rude. Whatever happened to Lance, it affected the Lion so deeply that he doesn’t like us anymore.”

Coran bit his lower lip, thinking. “We could try asking Lance some questions.” He proposed.

Hunk arched an eyebrow. “In case you haven’t noticed, although Lance hasn’t lost the ability to speak, he lost the ability to make any sense.” He told him.

“Has he?” asked Coran. “Cause he made a lot of sense to me when he started crying and said that no one loved him. Even when he was talking about Shiro loving everyone but him.”

“That is not true! I love all of my paladins: Keith, Hunk, Pidge-” he started listing off.

“And, ‘looking at smudged piece of paper, Kance’?” asked him Pidge, typing on her laptop.

Keith stared at her confused, while Shiro glared. “I was going to say Lance Charles McClain.” He told her, glaring.

“What I was saying, before I was oh so rudely interrupted,” said Coran, “is that perhaps Lance thinks that we do not love him as much as we say we do.” He finished.

Keith tilted his head to the side. “I'm confused said.” 

“No one is surprised by that.” Said Pidge, rolling her eyes.

“Wow, now that Lance is out of commission, you really are campaigning for bitch of the year.” Spat the red paladin, glaring.

The girl arched an eyebrow. “As a defending champion, are you threatened?” she asked, as sweetly as a snake. 

“How about we just go to sleep for now and figure it out tomorrow? Because, personally, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Lance is now a 3 years old baby and somehow I became his space dad.” Shiro said, running a hand through his hair.

Pidge grinned. “Ah, yes, and Allura became your wife aka spaceman!” 

Both of them blushed at her words, while Pidge and the rest of the paladins bursted out laughing. 

“Good night everyone!” 

“Goodnight!” 

“Goodnight!” 

“Goodnight.” 

At least the day was over, thought Shiro, as he closed his eyes and laid down on the bed. _The sweet release of deat_ \- ahem, sleep. 

It wasn't even an hour before the black paladin was awakened by the sound of a crying child. Of course Lance would wake up in the middle of the night. He was a toddler. That’s what toddlers did. 

He groaned loudly, pushing himself off the bed and making his was to Lance’s bedroom. When he finally entered the bedroom, he found the boy on the floor crying and Allura sitting next to him, trying to calm him down. “What happened?” he asked, settling down on the other side of the boy.

Allura shrugged helplessly. “I think he had a nightmare and fell off the bed and now I can’t get him to fall asleep again because every time I try to leave the room he starts crying.” She explained, looking tired and exasperated at the same time. 

Shiro could relate. “Then just stay here with him. He's going to end up waking up the entire ship.” He pointed out. “I’ll stay too.” He promised, before turning his attention to Lance. He put an arm around the boy’s neck and pushed him closer to himself. “What is it that you want, Lance?” He asked the boy, while Allura gently caressed him on the back.

“I want Mummy and Daddy.” sobbed the boy, now holding on to both of them.

Shiro was way too tired for the entire thing, so he picked up Lance and put him back on the bed before tugging Allura to lay down on one side of the boy while he laid on the other, effectively sandwiching him between them.

He was so tired he fell asleep immediately, Lance’s breathing evening up as he fell asleep too.

* * *

When Lance woke up in the morning both Shiro and Allura were still asleep. He managed to extricate himself from the double hug they were trying to suffocate him with, quietly climbed over Allura and made his way towards the kitchen as soundlessly as possible.

There he found Pidge, whistling to herself as she tried to make something edible out of Coran’s useless ingredients. The girl did not even startle when she noticed the younger boy, and smiled down at him. 

“You want something to eat?” she asked me him.

Lance closed his eyes in concentration and then lit up. “I want pancakes!” He decided. 

Pidge snorted at this. “Don't all of us?” she sighed, looking at the food in her bowl with distaste. “Unfortunately, we don’t have it here.” She pointed out, but Lance was still smiling with an almost mischievous light in his eyes.

“Earth space small!” Simply said the other boy. 

This time Pidge understood exactly what he was saying. She put down the rest of the food, and grabbed Lance’s hand. “Let’s freaking go, then.” 

+

  
“What do you mean Lance is _gone_?” Asked Coran, looking horrified between Allura and Shiro.

Allura sighed. “I mean that Lance woke up in the middle of the night crying and me and Shiro went in his bedroom to calm him down-”

“Yeah, _riiight.”_ Muttered Hunk to a confused Keith.

Allura glared and continued. “… and we did and he fell asleep. But because we were so exhausted we didn't notice him when he woke up this morning. My guess is that he's somewhere with Pidge.” She explained.

Hunk shrugged. “Pidge said that she was going to make breakfast this morning and she never came back. I was hungry so I went to look for her and I couldn't find her anywhere.”

“Where could they possibly be?” Wondered Coran.

Shiro thought about it, then turned to Hunk. “Okay, a third of the Garrisson trio is here. Hunk, imagine you were with them, and a baby Lance walks up to Pidge and demands a particular food. What would-”

“Go with Pidge to the Earth shopping mall and buy something for them.” He said, without thinking. “Oh, _fuck_.”

* * *

And it turned out Hunk was right when, 30 minutes later, Pidge and Lance came back, the green paladin with a sugar cane in her hand, while Lance was beatifically licking a chocolate ice-cream. Pidge pretended to be remorseful as Allura, Coran and Shiro reproached her for her behaviour, but she was definitely grinning when they turned around.

Lance was too busy eating his ice cream to notice her and Pidge bit her lip, wondering what that strange ache in her heart was.

* * *

Allura looked at the bowl of what Pidge had informed her were Earth’s cereals with a high key unimpressed expression. What was so interesting about hard things put in a bowl then drenched with milk until they turned soggy?

She found Lance sitting in his bedroom, where Shiro had promptly passed out on the bed. She snorted at the sight of the exhausted paladin, before smiling down at Lance. “Morning, Lance! I got you some cereals!” She called, watching fondly as the boy left paper and crayons on the floor and ran towards her. _What_? Yes, baby Lance kept making her feel like a mother to be and full of sunshine and fuzzy feelings, sue her.

While Lance devoured his breakfast, Allura chose to look around the room. She kind of felt bad for not having been there before, but in her defence, being there would have meant suffer through hours of Lance’s awful flirting. 

Although, now that she thought about it, she couldn’t even remember the last time Lance had actually hit on her. She had been too busy trying to tell herself that Garla Keith= bad Keith without even giving him a chance, that she hadn’t noticed Lance.

A strange box coming from under Lances bed caught her attention, and she took it in her arms, wondering what it was. It was heavier than it looked and she frowned to herself, before opening it up. Her mouth fell open. Dozens and dozens of make up pieces were filling the small container, from face creams to eye and nail products, to perfumes and simpler brushes and blenders. It was _beautiful_.

The most beautiful thing she had seen in years, which, counting that she had been asleep for 10000 years and been fighting garlas for the few months she was awake, wasn’t much. But still.

“Where the quiznack did you get this?” She asked, cradling an Olkari conditioner in her hands. Lance smiled. 

“Mermer pwincess an paice ma'w and casssl.” He explained, before lighting up. “Do ma makh uf?” He asked, chewing the remains of food in his mouth.

Allura lit up.

* * *

“So… it looks like today’s my turn.” Said Hunk, looking down at the bored Lance. The younger boy had been left in his custody by a very tearful looking Allura earlier on, and Keith had magically disappeared, claiming that the small baby hated him. Which meant that Hunk had to look after him.

Despite having said to everyone that Hunk was his husband, Lance had not seemed the tiniest bit interested in him. He literally spent more time tormenting Keith with Pidge, or helping Coran around, than he did looking at Hunk.

And okay, it hurt.

It hurt a lot, no matter how much he pretended it was fine.

It hurt that ever since they had gone to space, his relationship with Lance had all but lost he flirty banter, it hurt that Lance had stopped making any sort of allusion to the two of them, and it hurt him to admit that he hadn’t tried or fought enough to keep him.

And apparently everyone else had had the same sort of experience. 

Shiro blamed himself for how he had _not-treated_ Lance. The blue paladin, one of the legs of Voltron, had all but been forgotten by Shiro. He felt like he barely knew who McClain was, while he always made himself in four to train Keith, listen to Pidge or console Hunk. He had thought Lance did need it like everyone else did, but in doing so, he had only succeeded in alienating the boy.

Pidge blamed herself for the distance she had created between herself and Lance. Back at the Academy, Lance had been the first one to _notice_ her. Even before they were put in the same team, Lance knew who she was. He had immediately cornered her after lesson and asked her bluntly why was she sneaking in the command room. She had made him believe that she was Mark’s brother, and he had believed her, but still… Lance had been there for her from the very beginning and she had forgotten that.

Allura blamed herself for not having seen before what Lance was trying to do. The reason why he had stopped hitting on her was not that he found someone else to torment. It was just that he had no one else there for him, and he had reached out for her, in an awkward attempt at friendship that she hadn’t understood. Even all of his flirting, none of it was genuine. It was all a ruse, but she had been too quick to judge his character to bother understanding why he did what he did.

Even Keith blamed himself for not having been able to see what Lance saw. Every time he compared them, every time he made a connection between the two of them, Lance was just trying to find a link. Something that might make him less than just _that one fifth member of Voltron_ and more _our friend, the blue paladin_. He wanted what Keith had: a place in the team, and people who actually _cared_ for him for more than what he did with Voltron.

Coran had regrets too, even though everyone assured him that if there was one person who shouldn’t feel guilty it was him. No matter how busy he was, no matter when and how, the engineer was always aware of Lance. He always knew where he was, he always tried to find him and bring him in, however he could. If Lance skipped lunch, Coran was the one who made sure there was something for him and went to look for him. 

And Hunk? He had always felt the closest to Lance. In fact, back during their Garrison days, they were dating. They had started going out merely a month after moving in in the same apartment. They had a _bond_. Lance had even sent him a text saying _‘And that’s why I love you, Hunkie Pie’_ , the day they first met Shiro and became paladins. And then space happened, and Hunk never said it back.

And Keith appeared and Allura, and Lance was flirting left and right- which was something he had been doing even when they were on Earth and had never bothered Hunk before- and making friends, and Hunk had stepped back. They returned to being friends. And no matter what looks Lance would throw his way, or how many cheesy pick up lines he said around him, Hunk never once tried to go back to him. He and Pidge became even more friends than him and Lance, and… they left him behind.

So yes, he kind of got why baby Lance was not even saying a word to him. 

He smiled down at the boy. “Do you wanna play something with me?” he asked him, hopeful.

Lance looked at him, and for a second Hunk thought he could see something in those eyes, something older than the three years old, something of the old Lance- but then he blinked, and little Lance was standing up and walking out of the room.

+

Hunk found him a few minutes later, passed out on the front seat of the Blue Lion. The huge robot was looking down at Hunk like he was a step away from ending his miserable life with his paw, but Hunk didn’t back down.

“I wanna know.” He said, resolutely. “I wanna know what happened to Lance.”

The lion didn’t move, but Hunk could feel a cold chill running down his spine just by the way it was looking at him. At least it hadn’t flipped him off. Yet.

“I love Lance. I loved him before and I love him now, and I’m sorry for everything that happened to him. I am sorry for how much pain me, and the rest, have caused to your paladin. I don’t know what happened when you were blasted away, or where did you end up, but I really want to. I want to right my wrongs. I want to fix my mistakes.” He looked up at the robot. “So please, blue lion, let me see. Let me help Lance.”

For a second, Hunk could visualise the _Lance defence squad_ \- aka Blue Lion and Coran- just smacking him repeatedly, but the lion actually opened his mouth, allowing Hunk inside. Although a part of him felt like the lion was just living up his dream of chewing team Voltron in his mouth. No one would ever know.

Once inside, Hunk found Lance fast asleep on the pilot chair and put a hand on his hair. “Lance.” He whispered, before turning to the interface. He didn’t have to press anything, before the screen lit up and a video started playing.

Hunk gasped.

+

_ Lance was laying on the ground, a hand on his side as he tried – and completely failed – at stopping the blood from pouring out of the wound. He had multiple scratches on his face, a very obviously broken leg and his shoulder looked out of his socket. Despite the obvious pain, though, he didn’t look worried for himself. _

_ “Blue, you have to go! If the Galra find out where I fell, or the pirates…! You have at least to get away, just in case.” He hissed, spitting blood from inside his mouth. _

_ The lion growled.  _

_ “I know, I know, you told me not to fight the druids,” he rolled his eyes. “But what other choice did I have? They were holding that poor alien hostage, and I am a paladin of Voltron!” he snorted. “Whatever that means, anymore.”  _

_ He closed his eyes, and the lion whined.  _

_ Lance snorted again, then winced in pain, opening his eyes. “Sorry, sorry, I’ll keep my eyes open. I couldn’t just leave someone innocent, and you know it, Blue.” _

_ The lion growled again, and Lance bit down his lip. “No, I am not mad she left me by myself, I am used to it. Everyone leaves me in the end.” He whispered, a tear rolling down his cheek. “Which is why I wanted to thank you, Blue. For always having my back. For never leaving me. But now, you have to leave, girl.” _

_ The lion – or lioness, according to Lance – shook its head, laying down at Lance’s feet, their faces on the same line. If he hadn’t been hurting so badly, Lance would have patted her head. _

_ “The only regret I have, is that I will never be able to tell anyone what I did. Shiro won’t ever say ‘ _ I’m proud of you, Lance’ _. I would never see Allura actually interested in anything I have to say. Pidge will never listen to me telling my story and make jokes about it until I laugh. Keith won’t ever know how his technique is the only way I managed to save the chick. And Hunk will never see me as a hero, as something cool that can be loved. He will always see me as that wimp that got us all in this horrible mess and I’m just going to die.”_

_ Lance sniffed, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I never wanted for it to end like this, you know, Blue Beauty? They probably won’t ever notice I went missing. Maybe Coran will look for me. Make sure he’s safe, and never gets forgotten, you hear me?” he asked the lion, who just whined again. _

_ “I wanted to make more jokes with Pidge. I wanted to train with Keith and Shiro and be seen as an important part of the team. I wanted to talk with Allura about how much we care for Hunk and Shiro and show her my collection of make-up, maybe ask her about the Altean stuff I found around the castle. I wanted to get Hunk to love me like I love him. I wanted to be an important part of the team. Someone who doesn’t get forgotten.” _

_ Now, he was crying, in pain and sadness, blood and tears mixing with each other. “I didn’t want it to end like this, but it has to.” He sniffed, and swallowed. “You have to go now, Blue. I love you and I don’t want you to see me this way. Please. This is an order.” _

_ The lioness whined again, and made to move when someone appeared next to them. Looking like crossing between an Earth woman, a butterfly and a mermaid, was the alien they had saved from the Garla ship by themselves. _

_ She looked at him in distress. “You saved me, paladin. I could never thank you enough.” Then she looked at the lioness, who was a step away from blasting her head off. “I can help. I can take away the pain. The pain from the wounds, and the pain from in here.” She explained, pointing at his chest. At his heart.  _

_ “No.” said Lance, closing his eyes. “It’s too late. Blue can just find a new paladin. It’s all-” _

_ The lioness roared so loud that the ground was shaking, and Lance opened his eyes. He would have chuckled, if he wasn’t in so much pain. “I guess Blue wants what Blue wants.” He answered, trying to focus on them. _

_ Then the fae casted a spell, and the screen went black. _

_ + _

Everyone stood in front of the screen, looking vary degrees of sad and angry. No one had any words to say. What could they say, really. _Sorry Blue? Sorry for not seeing? Sorry for not being there?_

“It’s all my fault-” started Shiro, putting a hand on his face. “I should have noticed, I should have tried.”

Pidge shook her head. “It’s everyone’s fault. We all did this to Lance, not only you.” She turned to face the small boy, still asleep on the pilot chair.

Pidge was right. If only they had been there, if only Lance had asked for help, if only they’d tried harder… maybe this wouldn’t have happened. But what could they do now?

Allura turned to the Lioness, putting one hand on the control panel. “What happened after? Is there anyway we can turn Lance back?” 

The blue lion let out a low rumble, and the princess frowned. “Tell him? We just have to tell him?”

The rest of the team looked confused at that, but Shiro nodded. “He is in this condition because he doesn’t believe we care for him. If we tell him, or show him, that we do actually care-”

“It should be enough to reverse the magic.” Pidge nodded. “Okay then. I’ll start.”

She stood over the small sleeping baby and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry Lance.” She started, “I’m so sorry for forgetting you. For leaving you behind. For creating a gap between us, when I should have been there for you. I am sorry.”

“And I’m sorry too.” Said Shiro, putting a hand on Pidge’s shoulder. “I forgot you too. I am the team leader, I’m supposed to be there for every single one of my paladins. But I wasn’t there for you. I left you scramble by yourself, and I’m sorry you never once heard me say these words, but,” he gave a small smile. “I am very proud of you.”

“I am proud of you too.” Said Keith, looking almost uncomfortable under everyone’s stares. “We could have been friends. I could have helped you out. I should have helped you raise yourself instead of helping you putting yourself down at every chance I had. I am sorry, Lance.”

Allura smiled down at him. “I should have tried to look past my prejudices, past my usual distrust. I should have given myself a chance to see what you really wanted from me. Thinking about it now it should have been so _easy_ to realise that you were never once interested in me. But I was just so convinced- anyway, I’m sorry, Lance.”

Hunk looked down at the baby, and sat down next to him, a sad expression on his face. “Why were we both so stupid? Why did we not fight for each other? Why did we do the stupid thing and just not spoke to each other?” he shook his head. “It was my turn to deal the cards. You told me you loved me. I didn’t answer you. No, instead we ended up in space and I spent weeks avoiding you. And for that I’m sorry.”

For a moment, everyone stayed silent, looking down at the small baby Lance. Then Hunk smiled, giving him a small kiss on the forehead. “I miss you buddy. And even though you might never remember this, I have to say it. Lance McClain, I, Hunk Garret, love you too. To the moon and back.”

+

_ “Lance? It’s time to go back.” Said Mez, the magic human slash butterfly slash mermaid alien chick. Lance looked up at her from where he was laying down. _

_ “Go back where?” he asked, confused. He wasn’t really listening though. It was almost lunch time, and his mother was calling everyone to help with the plates and if he dared to be late… _

_ “To the paladins. To Voltron. To the Blue Lion.” _

_ Lance shook his head, before smiling and waving at his older sister. “Wait up, I’m coming.” He then turned to look at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m happy here.” _

_ “Lance, they miss you. You should go back.” _

_ “Why? I am happy here. I have my family. There is no Zarkon. Everyone is happy.” _

_ “But this isn’t real. You know this isn’t real.” _

_ Lance studied the figure of his siblings, laughing and calling his name, and everyone’s smiley face. Everyone was happy. Lance was happy. Why should he go somewhere where all he felt was pain and sadness? _

_ “They understand what they did was wrong. They get it. But Lance, you weren’t fair on them either. It’s easy blaming everyone else when we don’t bother making the first step ourselves.” Mez smiled. “You called them out on their bullshit, and I’m here to call you out on yours. You have to go back.” _

_ + _

When Lance woke up, he found the rest of team inside his bedroom. Coran was asleep at the door, Pidge was somehow laying on his pillow, Keith at the feet of his bed. He was sandwiched between Allura and Shiro, while an asleep Hunk was holding onto his hand, and he smiled.

Maybe this wasn’t his idea of happy. But in a way, this was perfect.


End file.
